Alex Neil will prepare for his last game of the season in exactly the same way as he prepared for his first.

The only difference is that Neil kicked off the season with Hamilton Academical winning a Scottish League Cup tie against Arbroath in front of 730 fans – and on Monday it will be a £130million Championship play-off final promotion shoot-out in front of 90,000.

But Neil has been so ­determined to maintain business as usual, birthday boys Wes Hoolahan and Tony Andreu passed cakes around the dressing room this week.

And now his gateau blasters are ready to rumble with Boro.

“We’re not going to lose the play-off final because we’ve had a bit of cake,” chuntered the Canaries manager.

“I haven’t been tempted to change the pattern of our build-up at all. The structure of my weeks is always the same and I don’t like to deviate from it. As they say, if it’s not broken, why fix it?

“Our preparation will be very similar to my approach for Arbroath. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing – if I haven’t got my team ‘prepped’, in my eyes that means I’m not doing my job right.

“We took that game as ­seriously as this one without there being as much at stake, but that’s where I was at the time and it meant a lot to me that we should win, as we did.”

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Neil, 33, would be the youngest manager in the Premier League next season if Norwich can avenge their twin defeats by Boro in the ­Championship – and he would be the only Scot.

In a division once dominated by the gravel tones of Busby, Shankly and Fergie, the old Saltire has been at half-mast since Paul Lambert left Aston Villa three months ago.

“I think it’s like anything else, it goes in cycles,” said Neil. “I don’t pay too much attention to the fact there are no Scottish managers in the Premier League.

“I’m sure in five years’ time, there will be five or six of us knocking about.”

So there are plenty more talented managers north of the border?

“You mean as good as me? I’m not sure,” said the Norwich boss. And he may not have been joking.

Whatever he keeps under his top hat – including a reputation for being strict and having obsessive attention to detail – Neil’s methods have made him an instant hit.

City have won 16 out of 24 games since he was headhunted by chief executive David McNally and left Hamilton to take over from Neil Adams.

“Whether it’s in the changing room or on the pitch, when you come to a club you’re expecting major problems, but that certainly wasn’t the case when I arrived here,” he said.

“There wasn’t a great deal to fix, it was more about keeping the players focused, giving them clear messages and letting them know exactly what I was looking for.

“I remember saying Norwich had a Premier League squad, but ultimately they didn’t stay in the Premier League last year and to try and change that momentum is really difficult.

“To bring a winning mentality is really hard and Neil had that task at the start of the season. It would have been extremely difficult to change the tide. I’ve come in on the back of that and managed to finish the job.

“I’m a believer that if you work hard, and you’re good at what you do, the rewards will come.”